Mum complains because she feels that nobody, not even my father, understands her sufferings. Her husband did not appreciate how much she had suffered after marrying him! Did he not?
Mum constructs her own reality. Her self-esteem is high. In her drunkenness (she had consumed one third of a bottle tonight), she keeps telling the same story of the wife of a good friend abandoning the husband and children and how she, despite poverty, had persevered to these days. She would not do such irresponsible things. Usually, my father keeps quiet without saying anything to contradict her. But tonight, he broke his silence and simply added one crucial detail which Mum has missed: the husband forced his own wife to prostitution in those harsh days!
Though Mum's story is incomplete, it makes sense and helps build up her self-esteem.
The book of Ezekiel is full of symbolic actions. Interpretation of these symbols is not a science, but an art. We may not have the whole story. Our job is to try our best to construct a sensible picture out of what is at hand. We have seen some UFO in chapter 1. We have seen Ezekiel eating a scroll in chapter 3. There are more to come.
In chapter 4, God instructed Ezekiel to lie on his left side for 390 days to symbolize the number of years the house of Israel would receive punishment. Well, this is not prophecy. Ezekiel was already in exile. Israel had been conquered more than 200 years ago.
For I assign to you a number of days, three hundred and ninety days, equal to the number of the years of their punishment; so long shall you bear the punishment of the house of Israel (Ezekiel 4:5).
And when Ezekiel had finished, he would turn and lie on his right side, this time for 40 days only. Now, this is good news for those Jewish exiles in Babylon.
And when you have completed these, you shall lie down a second time, but on your right side, and bear the punishment of the house of Judah; forty days I assign you, a day for each year (Ezekiel 4:6).
Notice that in these symbolic actions, God counted one day for one year. For example, Moses sent men, one from each tribe, to spy on Canaan. They spied on the land for forty days.
According to the number of the days in which you spied out the land, forty days, for every day a year, you shall bear your iniquity, forty years, and you shall know my displeasure. (Numbers 14:34)
Instead of occupying the land immediately, the Israelites wandered in the wilderness for forty years.
OK, even if we accept this numbering convention, we still have difficulty in harmonizing the prophets. Jeremiah prophesized 70 years of Babylonian Captivity (Jeremiah 25:11-12). Now, Ezekiel said 40 (Ezekiel 4:6). How shall we harmonize them? Furthermore, Israel never recovered from Assyrian Captivity. So, what did the 390 years Ezekiel refer to? These are good questions a Biblical Institute student should ask.
In Ezekiel chapter 5, God told Ezekiel to shave (the book did not say how much) off his hair and beard with a sharp sword. Weigh it with a balance. Ezekiel was to burn one third in the fire, to strike with sword another one third and to scatter to the wind the last one third (Ezekiel 5:2). This action symbolizes how the population in Jerusalem would suffer. Again, this was not prophecy, but what Ezekiel witnessed with his own eyes what had happened during the fall of Jerusalem. In the vocabulary of Ezekiel, God chastised them with pestilence, the sword and famine.
In Ezekiel chapter 8, God showed what evil people in Jerusalem had done in secret. In chapter 9, God sent a man to mark on the foreheads of those who were righteous in Jerusalem. Then after him, God sent 6 executioners to butcher those without the mark.
And the LORD said to him, "Go through the city, through Jerusalem, and put a mark upon the foreheads of the men who sigh and groan over all the abominations that are committed in it."
And to the others he said in my hearing, "Pass through the city after him, and smite; your eye shall not spare, and you shall show no pity;
slay old men outright, young men and maidens, little children and women, but touch no one upon whom is the mark. And begin at my sanctuary." So they began with the elders who were before the house. (Ezekiel 9:4-6).
Later in chapter 10, Ezekiel saw the UFO again. This time, he was able to identify them as the Cherubim of God.
In conclusion, the books of prophets do not necessarily foretell the future. Sometimes, they needed to package history in apocalyptic terms to press on his message. As for a proper interpretation of Ezekiel, we need to construct a fuller picture. Now that we only have a few jigsaw pieces, we need to read more before we can draw any meaning conclusions.
My dear Advocate, I really admire those who are able to read people like a book. I find people fascinating. Every man is a mystery. They live in a virtual reality constructed by themselves. Help me understand them better so as to be able to reach them and channel Your peace to them. Amen.
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